Three city workers — including a firefighter who made collections using a marked FDNY vehicle — were among 38 people indicted for running nationwide Internet sports-betting rings that raked in $178 million over the past three years, authorities said yesterday.
Two separate rings used Web sites to take bets and keep records but paid off customers in cash to avoid violating federal law, Queens DA Richard Brown said.
Firefighter Matthew Fopeano, who works in the department’s Medical Division, and highway-repair worker Michael Labetti were “agents” who collected gambling losses, paid out winnings and solicited new business, Brown said.
It is not clear whether they were on duty at the time of the alleged activities.
That gambling consortium, headed by Gambino crime-family associate Robert “Rusty” Baselice and Charles “Charlie Tuna” Cicalo, took in $154 million in bets since 2007 on Web sites such as CrownSports.com, which served as a high-tech wire room, Brown said.
Sanitation worker Robert Ackrish, a three-year veteran assigned to a garage in Brooklyn, and his father allegedly ran a separate book that handled $24 million in betting. Ackrish has been issued a complaint and must appear before the department advocate.
Authorities said the NYPD and Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed more than a dozen search warrants yesterday and seized more than $1.6 million.
“I anticipate it will be much more,” Brown said. Fifteen ring members were arraigned on enterprise corruption charges, but Fopeano had yet to be arrested, authorities said.
Other suspects from as far away as Las Vegas and Florida were also rounded up yesterday.
An FDNY spokesman said Fopeano, an eight-year veteran, was suspended without pay and faces termination.